Global Disinformation Index

WHY NOW?

We are at a watershed moment of internet’s history. Whilst it has brought us great benefits for our society, the freedom has a downside.

Join us in the fight back

THE INDEX

THE CHALLENGE

The world we are in

The internet is one of the greatest agents of free speech and democracy the world has ever seen. It has given individuals and communities access to unprecedented tools for self-expression, new platforms to build communities and new capabilities to speak truth to power.

Yet at the same time, those same decentralising qualities have made the internet and social media vulnerable to abuse by some of the darkest forces in our society – who are determined to exploit the openness and connectedness that the Internet and social media has given us to spread division, fear and mistrust.

Disinformation on the rise

One of the increasingly damaging aspects of this is Disinformation, deliberately false content, designed to deceive for financial or political gain.

ABOUT US

OUR VISION

A world in which we can trust what we see in the media

OUR MISSION

Restore trust in the media by providing real-time automated risk ratings of the world’s media sites through a Global Disinformation Index

Principles, Governance and Funding

The Disinformation Index is a global cross-sector coalition between governments, business and civil society. We operate on three principles of Neutrality, Independence and Transparency.

Neutral

Independent

Transparent

The index is non-political. Its governing board will comprise independent trustees with no commercial link to the media. Our Advisory Panel comprises experts in Disinformation, Indices and Technology from around the globe.

Our funding will come from a range of sources including governmental, philanthropic and from companies. No one funder will comprise more than 33% of the total funding base. We are a not for profit UK company.

Our index methodology will be published, all media sources rated will have the scores behind their rating. Our funders list will be continually updated online.

Anne Applebaum

Peter Pomerantsev

Miguel Martinez

“A neutral, independent, transparent and flexible index like the GDI will give governments, advertisers, readers and journalists some real metrics for the first time.

If we are going to begin a broad conversation about regulation, we need to know a lot more about what we are regulating.”

Anne Applebaum, Professor in Practice and Co-Director of Arena, LSE

Supported by

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the GDI?

The Global Disinformation Index (GDI) is an independent and neutral assessment of a domain’s risk of spreading disinformation. Every domain in a country is assessed and assigned a transparent rating.

What is disinformation?

Disinformation is inaccurate information spread purposefully and/or maliciously. At the GDI, we focus on the verb ‘to disinform’, or the process by which disinformation is produced and spreads.

What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation?

Both refer to inaccurate or misleading information. The difference between them is the nature of the intent. Misinformation is seen as more of a reporting “mistake” that may or may not be spread intentionally. Disinformation is always purposefully and maliciously disseminated.

How is the risk of disinformation assessed?

The index looks at neutral signals to flag the disinformation risk of a news domain. These signals include metadata and other observable factors. This rating is assessed using artificial intelligence (AI) and human review. Both processes are used to classify and rate the domains into different “at-risk” groups.

How will the GDI risk ratings be used?

The ratings are intended to be used by advertisers, ad exchanges and platforms. The GDI will produce a list of high-risk domains that can be used by brands and advertising agencies to ensure their ads don’t appear on sites whose risk profile does not match their ad criteria. Ad exchanges will have real-time information on high-risk domains before placing ads on them. Social platforms and search engines will have a neutral assessment to demote the visibility of high-risk domains on their platforms.

Who funds the GDI?

Index funding will come from a range of sources including governmental, philanthropic and from companies. No one funder will comprise more than 33% of the total funding base. Current funders are the UK government, Luminate and Meedan. This funding is being used to develop and pilot the index in at least five countries by early 2020.

TEAM

TEAM

The GDI comprises a team of 12 experts from around the world.We can be found from Berlin, Germany to San Francisco, California.

We are data scientists, intelligence analysts, researchers, and data analysts.

We come from a mix of backgrounds, including media, journalism, cybersecurity and ad-tech.

Founders

The GDI was founded by:

Alexandra Mousavizadeh

Co-Founder

Alexandra has 20 years’ experience in index construction and data analysis. She recently oversaw the expansion of the Legatum Institute’s flagship publication, The Prosperity Index and all its bespoke metrics-based analysis and policy creation for governments and businesses. Prior roles include CEO of Arc Ratings, a global emerging markets based ratings agency; Sovereign Analyst for Moody’s and head of Country Risk Management, Morgan Stanley.

Clare Melford

Co-Founder

Clare Melford is an experienced CEO in the commercial and not for profit sectors. She is an expert in building and managing cross-sector coalitions. Former CEO of the International Business Leaders Forum and MD of MTV Networks, Nordics. She has worked on start ups in E-commerce, Fin-tech & Ed-tech. She is a founding board member of Girls not Brides, the global coalition to end child marriage.

Dr. Daniel Rogers

Co-Founder

Danny is a physicist, an author, and an expert in the fields of cryptography, cybercrime, disinformation, and security, and has published numerous patents, papers, and books on those and other subjects. Prior to co-founding both Terbium Labs and the Global Disinformation Index, Danny managed a portfolio of physics and sensor research projects at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Math and Physics from Georgetown University and a Doctorate in Chemical Physics from the University of Maryland. He currently teaches in the Cybercrime and Global Security Masters Program at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and is a Security Fellow at the Truman Project on National Security.